Are you a fantasy writer who needs editorial feedback on your work?
Are you a fantasy writer who has difficulty finding colleagues who will give you useful and actionable feedback that will improve your work?
Are you a fantasy writer who works better when you have a 2 week deadline to get a draft done?
Perhaps what you need is to take part in a 12 week course on fantasy writing that will help you to hone your skills as a writer and world-builder, provide editorial feedback, and deadlines so that you force yourself to write and accomplish your tasks.
The Spring Course
Starts: March 1st 2019.
Assignments Due: March 15th, March 29th, April 12th, April 26th, May 10th, May 24th.
Course Fee: $210 USD via PayPal.
Space is Limited: Only 10 spaces available.
The Autumn Course
Starts September 6th 2019
September 20th, October 4th, October 18th, November 1st, November 15th, November 29th.
Course Fee: $210 USD via PayPal.
Space is Limited: Only 10 spaces available.
The Assignments
Assignment #1. World Building in a Sandbox
You will be challenged to create a new world by writing an origin story for your world and then focus on a specific small region of that world. How did your fantasy world come to be? What is unusual and different about your small region? What does the geography of the region look like? Where are the major points of interest? What are the languages spoken? What is the culture? What monsters or threats inhabit various regions? (Making a map of the region for this assignment is encouraged, but not mandatory.)
Note - You can later use this world for Assignments #2 to #6, but it is not mandatory.
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format*.
* See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_manuscript_format
Assignment #2. Finishing the Unfinished Piece
Using an older piece you started, but never finished, you will write / rewrite it and finish 6 pages of a new version of the piece. If you don't have a suitable piece you can rewrite / finish, you can also use an old idea for a short story that you have been wanting to work on eventually, but you never got around to writing it. Now is your chance to finally finish it. You have had the story in your mind for a long time, so it should be done cooking by now. How could you improve the plot? How can you improve the characters? Time to get it done. The story could be adapted to be in the same world you created in Assignment #1, but it doesn't have to be.
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.
Assignment #3. The Villain's Mindset
You need to tell a story from the 3rd Person perspective, but targets only a specific person's actions and thoughts - specifically in this case, the villain. Is the villain human or are they a monster or beast? What motivates them to do what they do? What is their backstory? The villain could be in the same world you created in Assignment #1, but doesn't have to be.
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.
Assignment #4. The Hero(es) Succeed or Fail
Write a story about a hero or a set of heroes. Are they common people thrust into a dangerous situation? Are they pros at what they do? Try to focus on creating multidimensional characters who have flaws. Do the hero or heroes change at all during the dangerous situation? What instigates them to change and succeed? Or do they refuse to change and then fail?
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.
Assignment #5. The Climax of the Fight Scene
Write the fight scene between the villain and hero(es). Who has the upper hand? Who is the underdog? Who gets injured or defeated? Who dies? Are they using magic, weapons or fisticuffs? Is it a battle of wills or endurance or wits? Is it a clear victory or a battle of attrition? Does the villain get away? Do any of the heroes change during the climax in order to ensure a victory?
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.
Assignment #6. The Ending of the Epilogue
How do you think your story should end? What happens to the Hero(es)? What happens to the Villain(s)? What happens to the common people? Does everyone live happily ever after, or is it a bittersweet victory with lasting repercussions?
Write 6 pages using Standard Manuscript Format.
Note - If you made all of your aspects of this story within the same world you created in Assignment #1, you should have 30 to 36 pages worth of story and background on your world. You may have even written more than that to expand the story to your personal needs.
The All-Important Feedback
The feedback you receive will be polite (unlike the internet trolls you might otherwise encounter) and focus on things like setting, plot, narrative, what makes sense, what doesn't work, and ways to improve the structure, feel and enjoyment of the piece.
The feedback you receive will talk about what doesn't work, this is true, but will include steps to improve it so that it does work. Specific examples will be highlighted on the text which are problematic and suggestions will be provided as to how you can improve that specific part of the text.
Specific examples will also be pointed out of parts that do work well, so that the writer can see how they did it well in one section and then can learn to do it better in the areas they did poorly in.
The instructor/editor will never say something like "If I were writing this book..." because that is a cop out. This isn't their book. It is yours. You are writing it. An instructor/editor has to remain at an editorial distance and should not be telling you how to rewrite it in a manner that pleases their ego. You are not taking this course to give them an ego boost. You are taking this course to get better at writing. (Sadly quite a few seasoned editors still fall into this egotistical mindset.)
The instructor/editor will sometimes provide examples of other fantasy writers and how they overcome obstacles. This doesn't mean you have to copy what others did. These are merely meant as educational examples.
The instructor/editor will never provide a long laundry of 24+ things that are wrong with your work. Nobody wants to read that, and frankly the instructor/editor doesn't want to write it either. Instead feedback will typically be broken down into 3 or 4 larger subjects that need to be addressed, with specific examples cited. Often these subjects will be topics like Setting, Plot, Narrative, etc.
So for example if you write a story where the plot is confusing, the instructor/editor will point out parts of the story which are confusing and provide examples for how the plot could be made more concrete so that it is more easily understood by readers.
About the Instructor/Editor
Charles Moffat is a Canadian fantasy writer who has written 4 novels, 2 books of poetry, 3 novellas, 3 anthologies, numerous short stories, and a slew of fables. He is currently working on a book of fables that is due out in 2020. He lives in Toronto with his wife and son, where he teaches archery from Spring to Autumn. Archery, a sport for perfectionists, is an obsession for him, and many of his stories contain archery in some manner. As an instructor he employs storytelling and humour as a teaching technique, and in November 2018 published an article on the topic in Archery Focus Magazine titled "Teaching Archery Through Narratives".
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